


Ficlet: Buffy/Gunn PG

by idyll



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-24
Updated: 2005-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idyll/pseuds/idyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy visits Gunn, post-Canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ficlet: Buffy/Gunn PG

**Author's Note:**

  * For [viciouswishes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/viciouswishes/gifts).



They descend like locusts on Gunn in the hospital and the older guy--Giles, he says his name is, and Gunn's heard of him--sends the three Slayers he brought with him out of the room out at one point and Gunn almost pulls the stitches in his gut when he laughs at the guy's attempt at threatening him.

"You don't know the shit I've seen," Gunn says flatly when his laughter stops abruptly, and Giles studies him with narrowed eyes and then nods, relents. "If Angel wants any of you to know a damn thing, he'll tell you himself. For now, stop looking for him, and leave me the hell alone."

The door to the room flies open, slams against the wall behind it, and Giles and Gunn start, then turn to the small blonde standing in the doorway.

"I'll take it from here, Giles," she says, and her voice is tight and hard and cold.

"Very well, Buffy."

Gunn watches him leave, watches Buffy come slowly into the room and close the door. "I'm sorry about that."

"Wasn't you who did it," Gunn says with a painful shrug. "And the man's got his reasons. I don't have to like 'em, or respect 'em, but I understand it."

Buffy's lips tip up slightly and she sighs. "Angel went off somewhere on his own, didn't he?" she guesses and wrings her hands together briefly before gathering herself and letting them drop to her sides.

Gunn nods. "Yeah. It was--well, it wasn't pretty, even though we won. You know how that goes, from what I hear."

"It's kind of a job hazard, yeah," she says with a twist of her lips. She perches on the chair next to Gunn's bedside, crosses her arms against her chest. "You want to talk about it?"

"No." Gunn swallows back a tide of bile, clenches his hands into fists. "I don't even want to think about it."

"Okay."

And Buffy sits there, quietly, with eyes that darken from blue to gray in understanding, and Gunn's been after solitude since he woke up and everyone and their mother started showing up at the foot of his bed, but he doesn't mind her being here, not really. She knows what it's like, and she doesn't even try to make idle chitchat, and it's like being alone, only better, because there's someone else nearby to keep the worst of the terror away, and Gunn gets the first bit of non-drugged sleep he's had in days.

When he wakes up, she's there. Not still, but again, if he goes by the new outfit she's got on.

"Donut?" she asks, perky and smiling, holding up a box of pastries, and Gunn thinks about it for a moment, then nods.

It goes on like that for a month, until Gunn's released, and then Buffy asks him what he's going to do next, and Gunn can tell from the tone of her voice what she's *really* asking him.

"No offense, but after listening to Angel scream and fight and beg for help that was refused? I'm not all that eager to join the team."

Buffy winces and Gunn dips his head in apology because Buffy and her people had their reasons, and Gunn understands that, and bringing it up might have been necessary but it's a painful thing on both their sides of it.

"Well, how about a lovely European vacation?" she asks, looking down at the floor, and Gunn reaches out with an arm that shakes with the effort of movement still, and tips her chin up. "You can get away from it until you're really ready. See the sights."

Gunn arches a brow, lets go of her chin. "Maybe spend some time with a pretty girl?"

She smiles. "If you play your cards right."

"Buffy--"

"There isn't a stamp on me that says Property of Angel and/or Spike," she says with frustration at Gunn's reluctance, then frowns at the implications of that, grimaces slightly and shakes her head. "You know what I mean. I'm not off limits because of them."

"I'm mostly just boggled that you're on limits at all for me," Gunn says easily. "Girls like you? Don't usually go for guys like me. And you in particular? Don't usually go for humans at all." She scowls and he holds up his hands, carefully, and still winces. "I'm just saying."

"I know, and you're right."

That should be the end of it, but Buffy doesn't leave after Gunn's out of the hospital, set up in an apartment, and she drops by every other day or so, and Gunn wonders how much of her staying is about him, and how much of it is about hoping that Angel will come back around suddenly.

He asks her, right after a night of movies and popcorn that ends with her leaning towards him on the sofa and pressing her lips to his.

"It's not about him at all," she says quietly and Gunn isn't sure if that's the truth, but he believes her anyway and kisses her back.

.End


End file.
